


I just wanted some normalcy.

by JnDoe



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/F, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Titles, Out of Character, Self-Harm, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-20 16:55:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JnDoe/pseuds/JnDoe
Summary: X23 has been on the run for years, she finally feels safe enough to fulfill one of her dreams, she assumed the identity of the recently deceased Isabella Swan and settles in forks. AU, OOC, X23/Alice pairing. X23 will be referred to as Bella but i repeat it's her assumed identity, the real Bella we know is dead.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/X23, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edythe Cullen/Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Comments: 12
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A heads up, Bella is dead in this story, X23 has assumed her identity. X23 diverges from canon and is different as well. she doesn't have claws in her feet but has 3 per hand, she has also gotten her skeleton covered in Adamantium Beta due to having stayed in the weapon X program longer, Sarah Kinney didn't "raise" X23 but is still her biological mother. She will vary a little from the comics/animated shows.

**Prologue**

She was born into a cold sterile environment, not like that of a hospital but the cold sterile environment only found in laboratories. A childhood of painful horrifying experiments run on her, exposed to radiation at the age of seven. Aside from being modified she was trained to become a killer throughout her childhood, extensive martial arts training, weapons training and to keep her controlled, she was constantly subjected to mind control and conditioning, she was the weapon they wanted her to be. In her early teenage years they started to send her on missions to assassinate targets. For a long time the missions had always been relatively simple. Her last missions had started to indicate she wasn’t durable enough, so they decided to subject her to the most painful modification to date, if not for her unique abilities she wouldn’t have survived. When the procedure was finished her heart had stopped, when it started beating again all of her memories had come back, the procedure had been like a hard reset to her brain, it undid all the carefully placed memory blocks and conditioning. She could hear their plans to wipe her memory of the procedure due to her superior hearing, despite still being in the water tank. She promptly violently escaped, having killed most of the people in the room. Once out she found help, but those that helped her paid a high price for it, she had a target on her back. For years, no matter where she went, the government program hunted her down, she wasn’t safe anywhere, not even in foreign countries. Eventually she killed enough of them that they either gave up or there simply wasn’t anyone left to try and capture her. Still for a long time she continued to hide, living on the road, working odd jobs left and right, never staying too long in one place. Her life was monotonous, solitary and she often was unhappy. She envied watching normal kids go to school, having normal lives, having loving families. She was already in her fifties but the experiments had caused her to stop aging at 18, she was unable to move forward, forever 18, forever a young, brunette with a fit body that often got her unwanted attention. As she moved around she had learned how to get new identities, they never came close to the name X23 she had been given in the laboratory though. Self mutilation was a daily occurrence, the temporary physical pain helped her to deal with all the mental pain from her past. As time went on she just wanted to experience part of a normal teenagers life, just one time she often told herself when sitting in her vehicle watching a high school to see the students arrive or leave. The way she lived had allowed her to have a nice chunk of spare cash in savings. It was more than enough to bridge a few years of high school. Thanks to modern technology it had become easier to do research and self study, she had already dabbled in online college classes from time to time, something to pass the time. Still her fear was that despite her research into high school life, she’d have a hard time fitting in. It took years and finding the right identity for her to pull the trigger on doing it. She had managed to find a perfect identity and would be able to use it in a perfect place, high schools in major cities were out of the question, too often did they have metal detectors to prevent students from bringing weapons into school, which was a problem for X23. But the small town high schools didn’t have them. X23 had found an identity that was suitable, a 17 year old girl named Isabella Marie Swan. The girl’s father Charlie Swan had died during his job as the police chief of the town she was going to move to. A town that Isabella Swan hadn’t visited in ages, long enough for nobody there to know that X23 wasn’t the real Isabella Swan. The girl had gotten emancipated after the death of her drug addicted mother Renee that she had lived with her entire life in Phoenix, Arizona. To make matters worse for the already traumatic hard life the girl had had, Isabella Swan had gotten in a bad accident and died in a small town in New Mexico on her way to Forks where she was planning to live until she’d graduate high school. It had been easy to break into the local police station where Isabella Swan had tragically died, to delete the digital and physical records of her death, same thing that X23 did at the local morgue. Isabella had already been cremated. So X23 found herself arriving in Forks, as long lost daughter of the chief of police that had died several years before. There had been a few advantages with taking the girls identity, she now owned the old hunting cabin Charlie Swan had owned, his house already having been sold as part of the estate and it had added more than enough money to her funds, not to mention X23 now being the recipient of Charlie Swan’s police pension. She could only use the identity for a certain amount of time of course, but she had made a silent promise to Isabella that she’d make the most of it, hoping that if there was an afterlife the girl wouldn’t be angry with her. She arrived in her truck with a truck camper in the bed, it was a convenient way to live on the road and she brought it due to not knowing exactly before hand what condition the hunting cabin would be in. There had been some indication from Isabella’s personal effects that it needed some work since she had been planning to rent a house. And so X-23 found herself in Forks, Washington. A small logging town under a almost constant cloud cover, one of the least sunny places in the USA.

**Chapter 1**

_“I can see why Isabella didn’t want to live in the cabin.”_ X23 thought to herself.

The cabin was rustic to say the least, no running water, no electricity. There was an outhouse though. X23 was adamant to improve the cabin enough, electricity could easily be solved by placing solar panels, a battery bank and a inverter. The nearby creek provided water access. She took the truck camper off the truck and went to the local hardware store after picking up her new drivers license from the DMV and going to the bank to transfer Isabella’s money into a new account with the local branch.

 _“I should stop referring to her as Isabella and consider myself Isabella from now on, I’ll be staying here a while after all.”_ Isabella thought to herself.

She got enough basic supplies in the local hardware store to get started on fixing up the cabin, wiring, light sockets, switches, outlets, wood, screws, plumbing pipes, a few tools to supplement the ones she already had and some bits and bobs. She placed an order for solar panels, deep cycle batteries and a inverter. At the local farm supply, she got a couple of water barrels and a pump. She dropped off the supplies at the cabin, and started giving the interior a good cleaning putting aside the stuff she’d take to the dump tomorrow after school. There had been little in personal affects in the cabin, but there were a few pictures and some guns, not that she needed the latter for protection. The pictures were a reminder that she did look similar enough to the girl to be able to pass as her, but the research had thought her that Isabella hadn’t come to Forks in years and teenagers do change appearance wise as they grow up, so her training told her to just wing it in case somebody used to know the girl. She went to the local supermarket so she could have some dinner, Isabella rarely bothered to cook, usually preferring to live simply off of cereal, sandwiches and cheap premade meals. She took a quick shower in her truck camper while a hungry man warmed up. She settled outside under the truck camper’s awning to eat her hungry man meal. Whoever built the cabin, whether it was Charlie Swan or somebody else, had picked a beautiful spot, near the creek, a clearing on part of the cabin. But surrounded by enough trees to keep it private and secluded. As she ate she saw a blur passing on the other side of the creek.

 _“What the hell was that?”_ Isabella thought to herself.

Her senses went into overdrive, her sharp hearing barely could hear anything abnormal, whatever it was went away from her. Since that thing was downwind her smell wasn’t helpful either. Isabella went back to eating her hungry man, though she remained on alert. She smoked a cigarette before heading inside to watch the tv that was by now tuned to the local stations.

On the other side of forks, the thing came home. Heading straight inside.

“Did you have a good hunt, Edythe?” a motherly figure asked.

“Yes I did Esme, but we will need to be careful around the former chiefs old hunting cabin, it seems somebody is living there now. There was a RV of sorts and construction supplies stacked up against the cabin.”

“Were you seen?” a worried fatherly figure asked.

“Not a chance Carlisle, I was moving too fast.”

Edythe’s smallest sister came into the house.

“Any idea who it is?” the Pixie asked.

“I’m wondering that too, I haven’t heard anything about his estate putting the cabin up for sale. Too bad I couldn’t save him, he was a good man.” Carlisle said.

“No I couldn’t see exactly but I’m pretty sure it’s a girl or woman.” She answered

The conversation went on a little longer but the strange family decided it would be best to give the area around the cabin a wide birth for now. Though they were somewhat curious as to who was staying at the cabin, When the chief had passed away shortly after they came to live in Forks it had been a great loss for the community.

Isabella went to bed fairly late, not the wisest idea given she had her first day of school the next day, the year had already started and she had read about warnings that dropping in when the year is already started can be more difficult than attending on the first day of the year. She managed to wake up just in time to be early at school. She quickly washed her face and make herself somewhat presentable. Form fitting jeans, tshirt, flannel shirt and sneakers would do, with a snap cap on her long head of hair. She got in her truck and drove to school, stopping off at the local drive through coffee stand for a latte with 2 extra espresso shots and a bagel. She pulled into the school parking lot a little early, parked her diesel powered ford f350 and went inside to the school office where a older friendly looking lady was already hard at work.

“Can I help you?” the lady asked when she looked up.

“Yes I’m Isabella Swan, I was told I could finish my registration and pick up my schedule here.” Isabella answered.

“Your parents need to – Oh I’m sorry, I forgot that you’re emancipated, in all my years here we have never had a student like you, how are you holding up? I’m Mrs Cope.” She said as she started pulling out papers.

“It’s alright, I’m used to it, so I’m holding up fine. It’s still somewhat vague how being emancipated will affect me in school.” Isabella answered as she started filling out her registration paperwork.

“Well all the same rules still apply to you of course, but if you need to be excused from school we’ll accept a note from you yourself and technically you can come to the parent teacher conferences. Like I said we have never had a student like you so not everything is worked out yet.” Mrs Cope answered when Isabella started giving papers back to her.

Once Isabella was finished with the paperwork, Mrs Cope handed her, her class schedule. The Original Isabella Swan had been a straight A student so the new Isabella Swan had been placed in the schools advanced classes with a few specifically chosen electable classes, one being gym. She liked exercise in general, but gym was a easy way to get a free hot shower aside from exercise according to the research she had done.

“Well everything seems in order. You don’t have a place to stay yet? I ask since you wrote down a post box.” Mrs cope inquired.

“I’m fixing up a cabin, it’s a little out of town and there’s not really any mail delivery there, it’s easy to go to the post office anyway after school. I want to finish my education here in peace and quiet.” Isabella responded.

“Well we can certainly do our best to help you with that. I hope you’ll like it in our little school.”

“Me too, I hope it will be a good experience, enjoy the rest of your day.” Isabella responded and left the office.

She went to sit in her truck and studied the map and schedule while having her coffee and bagel. The school parking lot started filling in. As she got out of her truck a Asian boy walked up to her.

“Hi you must be the new girl Isabella Swan. I’m Eric Yorkie, the eyes and ears of this place, anything you need, I’m your man. I have so many questions for you, I’m on the school newspaper and you baby are news. I’m writing a whole feature on you.”

“I’m not news, not now, not ever. I just want to finish high school in peace and quiet.” She said in a slightly angry tone.

“Ok, no feature, not if you don’t want it. Can I walk you to your first class?” He replied having understood her intonation.

“Thank you, I just don’t like being in the spotlight. Yeah sure, I’d appreciate it Eric.” She said in a thankful and friendlier tone.

Eric helped Isabella to get to her first class of the day, there she met another puppy eyed boy that was also a transplant of sorts, his name is Mike Newton, the boy was clearly wanting to pursue Isabella, the time wasn’t right yet but soon she’d gently let the boy down. A skill she had acquired over the decades, it was always better to be diplomatic instead of harsh when it comes to that sort of thing and she had to last a couple of years here without attracting too much attention. Eventually she met up with the boys outside the cafeteria, given they both invited her to sit at their table. There she was introduced to the rest of the crowd that usually sat at the table. there was Jessica Stanley, clearly the biggest gossip of the school. There was Lauren Mallory, the bitch of the school and who took an immediate dislike to Isabella. Tyler Crowley who rapidly joined the chase after Isabella club. And there was Angela Weber, who could be best described as kind, somewhat shy and insightful. The lunch food was decent, not restaurant quality of course but it was decent. That was the first time Isabella saw them as they came in, the gossip girl of course gladly explained who they were.

“They are dr and mrs Cullen’s adopted kids, the big one is Emmet Cullen, he’s together with Rosalie Hale the tall blonde, the girl with the wild bronze hair is Edythe Cullen, she’s together with the blonde guy, Jasper Hale who looks like he’s constantly in pain and then there’s Alice Cullen, as gorgeous as the rest of them of course and every guy here is willing to throw themselves at her feet, but she refuses to date anyone from school, I think she feels we’re beneath her. It’s weird though how they are all together” Jessica said

“Jess, they aren’t actually related to each other though.” Angela said.

“It’s still weird. I think Mrs Cullen cant have kids, that’s why they adopted them.” Jessica said in a jealous tone.

Isabella couldn’t help but notice that the one named Alice was staring at her, she had golden eyes, couldn’t have been more than 5”3 and had walked with the grace of a ballerina to the table she sat at with her adopted siblings. Alice Cullen was absolutely gorgeous, the entire family looked like they had just escaped from a fashion show runway or a photo shoot and were hiding in the schools cafeteria or something, but Alice was something else, she reminded Isabella of Audrey Hepburn in a way, beautiful and with bucketloads of grace. She was petite but still had nice curves in the right areas. She was also dressed impeccably, you could easily call her the schools fashion queen. The staring started becoming slightly uncomfortable, especially combined with that cheeky grin. Isabella turned her attention back to the table and ate her food while rejoining the conversations at times. She wasn’t shy like Angela but came across as shy due to being unfamiliar with having a conversation with such a large group.

“Isabella, all the Cullens are staring at you.” Jessica said.

“Stop looking yourself, it’s probably why they are watching.” Isabella nearly hissed to Jessica.

Lunch couldn’t be over soon enough, it was bad enough already that most of the boys were trying to get her attention, with Jessica remarking that it was like sixth grade all over again, with Isabella being the shiny new toy. And on top of that Alice Cullen was staring continuously. She had Biology after lunch and the biology teacher Mr Banner had forced her to sit next to Edythe Cullen. Edythe had been looking at Isabella strangely the entire time, something that made Isabella afraid that Edythe suspected she wasn’t exactly a normal human or that Edythe suspected she wasn’t the real Isabella Swan. Isabella was relieved when biology was over and eventually found her way to the history class room. Mr Smith had made Isabella introduce herself and state what her hobbies are, she quickly decided to keep it to the bare minimum.

“Hi I’m Isabella Swan and I moved here to finish my high school education, I don’t have much time for hobbies since I live by myself.” Isabella quickly said to the dislike of Mr Smith who clearly had been expecting more.

He made her sit down in the sole available seat, the history class had double desks and the only available spot was next to none other than Alice Cullen. She went to sit down next to the energy bundle of pixie happiness, Alice was nearly jumping up and down on her seat from excitement.

“Hi I’m Alice, pleased to meet you.” The pixie said

“Isabella.” She replied kind of coldly.

 _“Should I make friends? Why didn’t I give that any thought?”_ Isabella thought to herself.

“We’ll be the best of friends.” Alice said.

“Uhm, yeah. Err. I’m not really the kind of friend you’d want. I’m dangerous, it’s best you keep your distance.” Isabella stated while looking forwards unable to notice the disappointment on Alice’s face

 _“She’s so much hotter up close. And her happy energy rubs off.”_ Isabella thought to herself.

Mr Smith saved the day by starting the class, they had apparently just started on the American civil war. Isabella suspected that he was a good history teacher since his class seemed to fly by. The content had her interest too, perhaps she aught to see about picking up a few books set in the civil war eventually she thought as the class was wrapping up. Once Mr smith dismissed the class Isabella made a immediate beeline for the door and stopped at her locker to pick up her gym gear. In the girls locker room she discovered that she shared gym with Rosalie Cullen, Rosalie was easily the text book definition of a goddess, but Isabella thought Alice was more attractive.

 _“Why can’t I get that girl out of my head?”_ Isabella thought to herself.

Gym was pretty fun but also tense, Isabella had to constantly remind herself to be average. And even then it was obvious she was not among the top of the class, she was the top of the class. As gym wrapped up the gym teacher coach Clapp pulled her aside.

“You must be Isabella Swan, our newest student?” Coach Clapp asked.

“Yes, sir.” Isabella answered politely

“Would you possible be interested in joining the girls athletics team? I think with the right training you could really excel at it. Talk it over with your parents.”

“Coach my parents are dead, as a emancipated teenager living on her own I don’t have time for extra curricular activities.” Isabella answered with a feigned coldness and a real seriousness, she really didn’t have the time for extra curricular activities anyway.

“Oh I’m sorry, I totally forgot about that. If I can do anything just let me know, you don’t have to do it all on your own.” Coach Clapp said apologetically.

“I’m good thanks.” Isabella answered neutrally.

She went to the girls locker room and took a nice hot shower, turning the hot water up as much as possible. Surprisingly for a place with so many showers the water was pretty hot. Too hot in fact, but due to her accelerated healing she wasn’t really getting burnt and nobody was any wiser. The pain from the hot water scorching her back felt good, it made the mental pain fade for the duration of the shower. She couldn’t stand in the shower forever of course so after soaping up and rinsing off she shut the water off, returning it to a neutral temperature position and dried herself off. School was over at this point so after changing she went over to her truck. While walking to her truck she felt a pair of eyes drilling into her. She glanced over her shoulder before getting into her truck and of course at the other side of the almost empty parking lot none other than Alice Cullen was staring at her again. Isabella shrugged it off, got in her truck and drove off, she had plenty of work to do at the cabin.

She stopped at the gas station to fill her trucks diesel tank and also filled a couple of gas cans for the generator in the truck camper and picked up a spare propane cylinder. There were a few advantages of having a base camp, being able to keep extra supplies on hand being one of them. Once home she loaded the truck with the things she wanted to throw away and drove it to the local dump. When she got back she started working on the cabin improvements, right now she wanted to lay plumbing to the creek so that the water barrels would be able to fill up with the flick of a switch. It was a easy job, she also installed filters so that she wouldn’t have to worry about the water being reasonable safe to use and wouldn’t be dirty. The wiring was installed for the pump and hooked up to a switch. Using her trucks battery to test it out the barrels were filled up with relative easy while she did some minor jobs around the cabin. Around 8:30 it was time to call it quits. She topped off the water tank of the truck camper and got started on dinner, she warmed up a box of tomato soup and made several grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove. After dinner she washed up and watched some tv. She experienced a vivid memory from her childhood when her mind wandered. Needing relief from it she took off her t shirt and let the claws in her right arm come out of her hand, immediately she sliced into her left arm, the physical pain provided immediate relief, the cuts though deep closed up really fast. She repeated the process several times until the memory was pushed back. She crawled into bed afterwards curled up into a ball of misery. So many doubts went through her head, part of her wanted to pack up and leave Forks behind, thinking this whole going to high school for the experience was a dumb mistake. The idea of leaving made her chest hurt, almost as if her heart was breaking.

 _“What is happening to me?”_ Isabella wondered before she fell asleep.

On the other side of town in the Cullen family home, patriarch Carlisle Cullen had just come home from the hospital where he worked as a doctor. He found his oldest daughter, Edythe sitting on the couch brooding, with his smallest daughter Alice glaring at her.

“What is going on here?” he asked

“Carlisle, the girl I saw yesterday on my way back from hunting is in school with us, appearantly she’s the daughter of the late chief Swan. –“ Edythe said before being interrupted.

“Carlisle, she’s my mate.” Alice said with a hint of sadness.

“Alice are you sure? It’s not very common for our kind to mate with humans.” Carlisle asked.

“I’m sure, I have had the occasional vision of finding my mate but she had always been sort of blank, when I saw her today I just knew it was her, I want to go to her now, I’ve been feeling the pull since I first saw her.”

“Alice sweetheart, do you know what this means? She’s human, you’ll have to change her or watch her grow old and eventually die. Are you really sure she’s your mate? It’s a life changing thing for both parties.” Esme said when she joined the 3 Cullens that were in the living room.

“I’m not even sure if it will go anywhere, she gave Alice a very cold shoulder in their history class today. And there’s more, she smells strange, her blood smells a lot more metallic and it’s very faint to begin with. I also can’t read her mind.” Edythe said.

“She’ll turn around eventually, I have seen it and she doesn’t smell strange, she smells great, I sat next to her today so I know, she smells of pine with hints of orange and lavender.” Alice said.

“If she is your mate that may explain why she smells different to you, though I have never come across a human that smells more metallic let alone with a faint smell. Are you sure about this Edythe?” Carlisle asked.

“I sat next to her the entire time during biology, she smells like metal to me.” Edythe answered.

They were joined by Rosalie.

“She’s also very athletic and heavy. When she used the springboard it bottomed out. I think you should take her own advice, that she’s dangerous and stay away from her. She’s a danger to this family. And I won’t allow her near us.” Rosalie added.

Alice hissed at Rosalie while getting into a offensive stance

“Alice go hunt and don’t come back until you’ve calmed down. Rosalie behave yourself.” Esme chided the pixie and the blonde.

Alice Cullen quickly ran from the house into the woods. After hunting she went to the cabin, it was late enough that Isabella would be asleep already. She got as close as she dared to, but it felt wrong, this was bordering on stalking. So after hearing Isabella’s restless breathing she forced herself to go home. With sadness she returned to the luxurious mansion thinking of the way her mate was living.

Isabella woke up in the morning, it had been a hard night, she couldn’t shake the feeling that going to high school was a mistake. She had finally fallen asleep after bartering with herself to at least finish out the week, it was Wednesday already after all. She got up and started her morning routine. School was better that day, the new toy had lost some of her shine by being indifferent towards their advances. Of course there were those that were persistent, it would take some time to get rid of them, being emotionally more mature seemed like a good option. Alice Cullen continued trying to strike up a conversation, it was infuriating to Isabella. She didn’t want to make friends, acquaintances was fine, a few people to sit with during lunch to have generic high school conversations with was fine too, but nothing too deep. Deep conversations was something that came with friendship. It had been over a decade since they last came to try to capture Isabella, but she didn’t want to have roots in this place, just in case she had to go on the run again. She finished the school week and had steadily set in the structure of going to school and working on the cabin. Since winter was approaching she had given the wood stove a good cleaning, the wiring, though basic was starting to come together. She planned to add a bathroom to the cabin in the future so she looked into renting a small digger to make a septic system. Her years of working temporary construction jobs were coming in handy. Soon it was Friday, aside from Alice Cullen who refused to let up, school had become more bearable. She drove to Port Angeles after school to pick up a small excavator. She easily pulled it on it’s trailer with her super duty pick up. When she got back to Forks she stopped at the lodge a local diner. It was the standard local place you’d expect in a small town, she went in and sat down at the counter and ordered a steak. When she was nearly finished the waitress came over.

“You must be Isabella Swan.” The waitress stated.

“Guilty as charged.” Isabella answered.

“Your dad took you here often when you were still little when you’d visit. He also came here every Thursday for a steak and cobbler, the cobbler was your favorite when you were little. I’m sorry for your loss. Do you want some cobbler on the house? It’s still the same recipe.” The waitress asked.

“I don’t really remember much of that to be honest. Thank you. I got a little room left so I’d love some but you really don’t need to give it on the house.” Isabella answered

“It’s no problem.” The waitress said as she set down a plate with the house cobbler.

 _“Isabella, you have good taste.”_ Isabella thought to herself when she tasted the cobbler.

She paid her bill, leaving a generous tip for the waitress and went back to the cabin. She unloaded the digger and got started on digging for the septic system until it got too dark. She got started on her homework that was due the next week and got thinking again, she could hold out another week, perhaps inform about changing the class she shared with Alice Cullen. Once her homework was finished a memory had crept back into her mind, inflicting self harm made it go away again. She woke up a little later than usual on Saturday and got her day started with a big bowl of cereal and coffee. She got dressed in her work clothes and went outside with a travel mug of coffee to continue the excavation work. After a few hours she was nearly done, as she was finishing up a old chevy truck came driving down the dirt driveway. She drove over to where the truck stopped in the excavator. As she got off the excavator a young native American looking boy got out of the truck.

“Hi, you must be Bella. I’m Jacob Black, I don’t know if you remember me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder, this is a AU story, X23 is slightly different and has a somewhat different back story. Thank you guys for the Kudos and Comments.

**Chapter 2**

“Hi you must be Bella. I’m Jacob Black, I don’t know if you remember me.” The native American boy said.

“Isabella Swan yes. Nice to meet you I can’t say I remember you Jacob unfortunately, my memory isn’t that good I’m afraid.” Isabella replied. _“I do recall the name from what I found in the real Isabella’s personal effect and from my research, she hung out with him when she visited Charlie back in the day.”_ Isabella thought.

“You used to always insist everybody called you Bella, we used to play together when you were still allowed to visit Charlie, but that was a long time ago of course.” Jacob said.

“What brings you here today Jacob, can I help you with anything?” Isabella asked.

“Oh, my dad sent me, He and your dad were best friends he wanted to ask you over for dinner to see how you’re doing. I guess he figured you would have checked in on the rez when you got to town.” Jacob said.

“Sure I’ll never turn down a free dinner. When do I have to be there?” Isabella asked. _“If I alienate people who have some history with the real Isabella, it could raise more suspicion than pretending to have memory issues.”_ Isabella thought.

“Er tonight at six, will you need directions?” he asked.

“Yeah I could definitely use directions. I’ll drop by after returning the excavator to the place I rented it from.” She admitted.

“Are you actually really planning to live in this old cabin?” He asked.

“Sure, why not? I’m making some improvements of course, such as the trench I’ve dug for the septic system I’m putting in. But I’m still living in the truck camper for now. You’re welcome to hang out for a while so we could catch up.”

“I’d love to stay a while Bella, I’ll even help out, I’m more of a mechanic but I’m a quick learner. Put me to work.”

“First things first, my coffee needs to be topped up. Want some too?”

“Got any soda?” He asked.

Isabella got Jacob a soda and refilled her travel mug, with Jacobs help the trench was quickly finished, she loaded the excavator back on the trailer that was still attached to her truck. She worked inside the cabin with Jacob helping out, he hadn’t lied though, he really was a quick learner.

“Where did you learn to do all of this?” He asked.

“Well with the way Renee preferred to spend her money I had a need to earn money so I could take care of myself, you know to cover the basics like clothes and food. I worked a lot in construction, it paid pretty well.” She lied skilfully.

“Couldn’t you use the money you inherited?”

“I wish, I would’ve moved out of Renee’s place if I could. But that’s not how it works, I didn’t have access to any of it. It was all supposed to be sealed until I was 18, you’re considered an adult then. But with the emancipation I’m legally already an adult now, it’s a little weird at school and everything but I make due. I’ve been on my own for a long time in many ways anyway.” She said.

“I’m sorry you had to live like that. My dad he’s in a wheelchair so there’s a bunch of things I have to do that normal kids don’t have to do, since my sisters moved out I’ve had to raise myself as well. Not saying it’s the same thing though.” He replied.

“It’s the same thing in many ways, at least you still have your dad, I’m sure he loves you even if he doesn’t say it.” She said.

Soon it was time for her to take the excavator back to the place she rented it from. Jacob gave her the address and directions before they parted ways. _“I need to go, they knew Charlie, avoiding them from the start would raise suspicions. The real Isabella hasn’t visited them in a long time so I’ll get away with it if I play ball.”_ Isabella thought to herself. She dropped off the excavator and picked up supplies for the septic system. She dropped them off at the cabin and went in the truck camper to get cleaned up and changed. It hadn’t been hard to find the Black’s house on the reservation, she parked her truck and got out. As she walked up to the front door it opened and a older man in a wheelchair appeared.

“Bella, I am so glad to see you. Jake told me you couldn’t remember him so you probably don’t remember me either, I’m Billy Black, I was your father’s best friend. I’m sorry for your loss.” Billy said.

“Thank you and I’m sorry for yours. You’re right I don’t remember you either, but I remember your name for what it’s worth.” She replied.

He led her inside where they were soon joined by Jacob. She hung out on the couch with him after Billy insisted he didn’t need any help finishing dinner. It wasn’t entirely surprising Jacob was watching a car program. Soon billy called them to the table, Jacob quickly helped to put the pots on the table. Billy had made spaghetti for dinner, when Jacob and Isabella sat down he gladly announced that he had made the world famous Black family spaghetti.

“Ok you’re not entirely bragging, it’s pretty good.” Isabella said after her first bite.

“Glad you like it Bella. We had a hard time finding you. Once we heard you were in town and registered at the school we started looking. Are you really planning to live in that old cabin?” Billy inquired.

“It’s not old, it’s rustic. And as I told Jac- Jake, I’m living in my truck camper until the cabin is fixed up.” She answered.

“Bella the woods around here are dangerous, it would be much safer if you lived in town. Or you’d be more than welcome to stay here instead. Jake can move back into his old room.” Billy said in a warning tone, the last part earning him a glare from Jake.

“I’m good, I’m enjoying living there, it’s peaceful and quiet. It’s nice, really. And I can take care of myself.” Isabella said defensively.

“Bella there are things roaming the woods around here that you can’t defend yourself against. Billy said in a warning tone.

“I’ll take my chances.” Isabella replied coldly

Billy seemed to have gotten the hint that he’d be unable to convince her. They had a more generic conversation during the remainder of dinner.

“So what are your plans, from what I gather you didn’t have to come here, the emancipation means you’re legally an adult right?” Billy inquired.

“I couldn’t stay in Phoenix, too many bad memories, you know. With the estate and being the beneficiary of my dad’s police pension, I don’t need to get a job, at least not right away. So I’d like to use it to finish my last two years of high school. I may do some traveling after that, it’s why I have the truck camper, I’ll be the first to admit that I took my sweet time getting here. With technology nowadays you can get a good college degree online so I’ll combine that with traveling. Yes legally I’m an adult and technically I don’t have to attend high school, but I just wanted to finish it. Despite everything I always worked my ass off to get good grades in school, no reason to stop now.” Isabella explained.

“That’s admirable, I know if Jake was in your position he wouldn’t go to school anymore.” Billy said jokingly.

“That’s only because school here is boring.” Jake said defensively.

Isabella hung out a little after dinner until Billy insisted Jake showed her around the small reservation they lived in. He took her to the beach, to the Alteara family general store and a few other places. They came across a trio of strange looking buff men.

“Who are they?” Isabella asked.

“That’s Sam, Paul and Jared, the La Push gang. They call themselves protectors but you wouldn’t believe the shit the council let’s them get away with. See the way they look at me? Like they want to recruit me next.” Jake answered.

“They can’t force you into a gang Jake, you always have a choice. Besides you shouldn’t take steroids like they seem to be on, that stuff is bad for you.”

When they got back to Jake’s house, Isabella bid her farewell, Jake had offered at Billy’s insistence to help out at the cabin whenever she needed a hand, they exchanged numbers to keep in touch. Though she wasn’t planning to ghost the kid, she would let it slowly fade out, it’s not uncommon for people to lose touch, even in a small place like Forks and the Blacks didn’t even live in town. She settled outside her camper under the awning to smoke a cigar while listening to the radio.

On the other side of Forks, Alice Cullen was being comforted by her mother Esme. Suddenly she no longer needed it anymore.

“Her future is back, I can see her again, she’ll be in school Monday.” Alice said in a single breath of relief.

“Has it ever happened to you before that somebody’s future disappears?” Esme asked.

“Only when we meet - Oh no she must have been hanging out with those dogs. I need to make sure she’s fine. Come to think of it I can never see her future, it always involves part of somebody else’s future. Is she? No, she cant be like them.” Alice blurted out

Esme held her smallest daughter with a firm grip.

“Alice if you can see she’ll be in school Monday then you already know that she’s fine. We have discussed this before, you cannot force yourself on her. She is human, we don’t know enough about it, she probably doesn’t feel the pull that you feel. You need to let it happen naturally honey.”

“You’re right, But what if she isn’t gay? Can you stay with me a while longer?” Alice asked.

The Cullen family matriarch quickly agreed to staying a while longer and kept comforting her smallest daughter. She continued to comfort her youngest that she wouldn’t be alone much longer but also reminded the Pixie again to be patient and that it would work out if they were soulmates.

Isabella’s mind wandered again while smoking her cigar, one of her many bad habits. It had been something she had picked up in her very early teens, feeling a strange urge to smoke, one could say it was just one branch of the large tree of self destructive behavior she has engaged in over the years. She didn’t like the way Billy black had warned her about the dangers in these woods, of course he had no clue as to her true identity, let alone her abilities. But his warning seemed to carry weight, there had been that thing she briefly saw and heard when she had only just arrived. Then there were the Cullens, a kind of strange bunch, she’d have to watch them, especially Alice who was often on her mind and whom she felt pulled towards. When her cigar was finished, she went to bed, there was a lot of work to do on Sunday.

She spent Sunday working on the cabin, the electrical work was as finished as possible for the time being, so she moved onto plumbing for the kitchen sink. Since winter was fast approaching she also went to buy a couple of cords of firewood, something that was easy and reasonably cheap in a logging town. It took a lot of trips in her truck to get the firewood moved to the cabin. The good old boys always insisted on helping her load her truck, they considered it wasn’t a woman’s job, but they could never keep up with her. She made a note to pick up some wood from the hardware store after school to build a roof over the woodpile, for now a tarp would have to do. In the evening she had resorted to self harm again to make the memories go away. She made a note to wear long sleeves to school, while they immediately closed up for some reason there were always scars for a day or two when she caused injuries to herself deliberately.

Monday she went back to school, she had decided to politely ask people to call her Bella, wanting to further immerse herself into her assumed identity. The schoolkids quickly picked up on it. Mike had started to get really on her nerves, she’d have to put him down a few notches soon. During lunch she felt herself drawn to staring at Alice Cullen again, the Pixie stared back, turning her attention back to her lunch group eventually had been a hard thing to do. There was something she had started noticing about the Cullens, for all being adopted, they were so alike, but so similar at the same time. All of them were incredibly beautiful, pale and they all had the same eye color. At the same time they were all so different. Had Dr and Mrs Cullen been very picky or something when they had adopted them, was a question on her mind. Biology, the class she shared with Edythe was awkward again, but this time the broody bronze haired girl had introduced herself.

“Hi I didn’t really introduce myself last week, it wasn’t polite of me. I’m Edythe Cullen.

“Bella Swan, you’re right it was downright rude.” Bella snorted before looking to the front of the class again.

“I hope we can be good biology partners for the year.” Edythe said sheepishly.

“At least you don’t start by insisting we’ll be the best of friends, partners I can do.” Bella said in a confronting tone.

“Ah yes, my sister Alice. She gets over enthusiastic from time to time.” Edythe admitted.

“She told you about that?” Bella inquired seriously.

“Yeah, uhm. We don’t really have any secrets in our family. With so many of us keeping secrets doesn’t really work out.” Edythe said

They quickly got started on studying slides of onions root cells and ordering them in the phases of mitosis. Bella had prepared well over the decades through self study to , so she had found it somewhat easy. Edythe was pretty good at biology though she did feel the need to double check the slides Bella had identified. They were the first lab partners to be finished, Mr Banner was skeptical at first thinking Edythe had done all the work, but Edythe told him that Bella identified 3 out of 5.

“Did you have this lab before in Phoenix?” Mr banner asked.

“Yeah I was in the advanced placement program.” Bella answered.

“Well it’s a good thing I paired you up with Ms Cullen then.” Mr Banner said before he went to check on the rest of the class.

The rest of the class went by quickly. Both Edythe and Bella kept to themselves. But before the bell rang Edythe had something to say.

“You know you should give my sister a second chance, we talked to her about coming on so strong.” Edythe said.

“I meant what I said to her, I’m not a good friend to have, I’m dangerous. And frankly you should want better for your sister.” Isabella said when the bell rang.

When she walked to the history classroom she decided to ignore Alice as well as possible, she didn’t go in until the warning bell rang, quickly sitting down. Aside from exchanging the usual pleasantries out of what’s considered basic politeness. Bella found it a little strange that Alice had called her Bella despite not having been told that Bella was her preferred nickname, but it could have been overheard from other students. Bella paid full attention to the teacher and hadn’t noticed her sleeves had been riding up.

“What happened to you?” Alice asked silently while touching the heavily faded scars.

 _“Fucking slowly fading scars when it’s self inflicted. And Alice’s touch while soothing feels cold.”_ Bella thought while pulling her sleeves back down. “Nothing serious. You ok? Your hands feel cold.” She said without facing Alice.

“Bad circulation.” Alice said quickly, almost too quickly.

When the class was finished Bella got up as quick as possible and darted for the door, not noticing the sad looking pixie she was leaving behind. She hurried over to gym, looking forward to the scalding hot shower that comes afterwards. After gym and her lovely scalding hot shower she walked to her truck. Before getting in she looked over her shoulder as usual, she saw the sad looking Alice looking at her and felt her heart break.

 _“I’m sorry Alice, you deserve better than to be friends with me. Even if I wasn’t living this lie, you’d get hurt sooner rather than later.”_ Bella thought and with a sad look on her own face got into her truck.

Having made a trip to the hardware store for wood, she found out the things she ordered would be arriving this week. She went to check her post box, there was a letter from school there, nothing important, just a letter to confirm her registration. She went back to the cabin and built a roof over the woodpile, did her schoolwork and ate a hungry man. While sitting under her awning she saw a shimmer flashing by in the distance again. Her adamantium claws came out rapidly and she scanned the area with her heightened senses, whatever it had been, it was going away again.

Alice arrived at her house in a slight panic, something her family members could clearly see. Edythe with her mind reading gift saw the memory play back when Alice though again of what happened.

“I think she saw me.” Alice said with a panicked voice.

“Alice what did you do?” Carlisle asked when he came out of his office.

“I just wanted to take a quick look, I stayed as far as I could, she suddenly stood up and was holding knives.” Alice explained.

“You were at the limit of your own sight? Where there any animals in between the cabin and you?” Carlisle asked standing in front of Alice by now.

“Yes, I didn’t want to go close. No there weren’t any animals.”

“Honey, maybe you’re imagining it.” Esme said to comfort her smallest daughter.

“Esme, I saw Alice’s memory of it. Bella saw her, I don’t know how but she saw her.” Edythe said.

“Carlisle are there any cases of humans having such exceptional sight?” Esme asked to her husband.

“Not that I’m aware off, to see one of our kind at the limit of our own sight is exceptional. Though we do know the girl is gifted since Edythe’s gift doesn’t work and Alice has great difficulty seeing her future.” Carlisle said.

Emmett was struggling to reign Rosalie in, when he could no longer hold onto her she darted to the hallway.

“You’re putting the entire family at risk for your own selfish interest.” Rosalie snarled at Alice.

Alice lunged for Rosalie but was quickly captured by Carlisle while Emmett had caught up with Rosalie and pulled her back. Jasper made both girls calm down somehow.

“That’s enough from the two of you! Rosalie you’re not to go to your workshop for the remainder of the week and Alice you’re not going shopping this week! And neither of you give me any excuse for your bad behavior or I’ll double it!” Esme said in her stern maternal voice.

“Yes, mom.” Rosalie said sadly.

“Sorry mom.” Alice said sadly.

“Calling me mom now isn’t going to get either one of you off the hook. Learn to live together again, you two used to get along so well.” Esme chided them both.

After the fight was avoided they both were let go and went their separate ways. Alice severely disappointed by the punishment handed out by her mother for all intents and purposes, but she respected Esme and feared her enough to accept the punishment. After all she had already seen multiple scenarios of what Esme would do if she went shopping anyway. Edythe caught up with Alice not much later and told Alice of the conversation she had had with Bella during biology, this having been the first chance they had for a private conversation.

The week progressed well for Bella, she felt uncomfortable around Alice in the classes she shared with her, Bella wanted to be on friendlier terms with the pixie, every time she saw Alice looking sad it felt like she was being stabbed in the heart, surprisingly it felt worse than actually being physically stabbed or shot in the heart. On Wednesday Jake had come over to help out finishing the septic system, it was overkill for now but she was planning on adding a functioning bathroom so it would work out. She had also picked up the solar panels and the rest of the stuff needed. She figured she could be finished making it livable by the end of next week, from there on it will be more about making the cabin more comfortable. It had become standard to have a little small talk with Edythe during the class they shared, Rosalie had become somewhat hostile, the death glares she could give were impressive to say the least, Bella wasn’t affected by her bitchy attitude though. By Friday the heart pain had made her decide to be a little nicer to Alice but she did lay down the rule to herself to not make any plans whatsoever with her, strictly just making a little small talk here and there and still determined to make it clear to Alice that a little friendliness didn’t mean she wanted to be friends with her. So when the Friday history class came around Bella went in earlier than usual, sitting down next to the surprised looking Alice Cullen.

“Hello Alice.” She said

“Good afternoon Bella.” Alice said.

“Any plans this weekend?” Bella asked.

“No not really, I am. Uh well you could say I’m kinda grounded. I’m not allowed to go shopping this weekend. What about you?” Alice said once she recovered from the shock that Bella seemed interested in striking up a conversation.

“That sounds like a severe punishment for you, I wonder what you’ve done to deserve such treatment. I’m gonna work on my cabin. I’ve been invited to go to a bonfire in La Push though but I haven’t made up my mind yet, I don’t want my friends dad to nag at me again for living in the woods. There’s unusually dangerous predators roaming these woods around here according to him.” Bella said with some friendliness in her voice.

“I broke a family rule and nearly fought with my sister. Might be interesting going to the bonfire though, you never know it might be fun. My family and I go hiking in the area all the time, we’ve never come across any unusually dangerous predators.” Alice replied.

“Breaking rules and fighting, huh? Guess you’ve been sitting too close to me, I’ve been rubbing off on you. I tried to warn you that you should stay away from me Alice. As for the supposed unusually dangerous predators I don’t believe in it, he’s an old man telling tales, seeing ghosts.” Bella said sarcastically.

“Old men tend to do that. You’re not a bad influence Bella, I don’t know why you talk about yourself like that, but you’re better than what you claim to be.”

"I’m the best there is at what I do but what I do best isn’t very nice, Alice. I meant it when I said you should stay away from me, I am dangerous and not dangerous as in the bad influence kind of dangerous." Bella responded deadly serious.

Alice had wanted to respond but didn’t get the chance when Mr Smith started the class. Once the class was over, Bella muttered a quick goodbye to Alice and bolted for the door again. Her mind was running in overdrive.

 _“Why does she have to smell so nice? So lucky Mr Smith started the class when he did. I need to stay away from her, for her sake. Why do I feel like I can fly when she looks at me with those golden doe eyes of hers? What is happening to me? Why can’t I get her out of my head? Why cant I resist her?”_ she thought on her way to the school gym.

She was very distracted throughout gym, which wasn’t a good idea since they were playing dodgeball. She got hit right in the face by a ball, hard enough to raise some suspicion, she got hit straight in the nose and didn’t even flinch. The coach came running over to ask her if she was ok. She answered she was fine, something he didn’t want to believe but after she insisted he let it go. Since she was out, she went to sit in the bleachers. She was worthless this gym class, too wrapped up in her own thoughts. And people took notice, some of the girls asking her if she was ok once the class was over and everybody was in the locker rooms. She shrugged it off, claiming to be tired. She did take a scalding hot shower, before heading home. Work on the cabin was difficult, she had a hard time focussing. Around dinner time she got in her truck after cleaning up a little and went to the diner for steak and cobbler. Continuing the tradition that the real Bella’s father had was good to blend in.

On the other side of Forks, Rosalie had been waiting for Carlisle to get home from the hospital before she decided to say something, she had been building cars in her head since gym to keep Edythe out.

“I need to say something about Bella.” She said to her family gathered in the living room for their traditional Friday family movie.

Alice had wanted to hiss, but the look Esme gave her made her think twice.

“Ok Rose, we’re listening.” Esme said diplomatically.

“First of all I want to make it clear to Alice that it wasn’t me who did it and to prevent her from seeking revenge I wont reveal who did it either. As you all know I have gym with Bella. Today the coach had us play dodgeball. Bella has rapidly become known for being quite the athlete, she was very distracted today though, she seemed loss in thought. Somebody and I repeat again it wasn’t me, threw the dodgeball hard at her, the school still uses the harder style balls, she got hit straight in the face.” Rosalie said causing Alice to hiss which in turn caused Esme to stand next to Alice and lay a hand on her shoulder

“Is she ok?” Carlisle interjected in doctor mode.

“That’s the thing, I saw her get hit, it sounded like you threw the ball at a metal wall, she didn’t flinch, wasn’t injured. She was completely fine. I don’t think she’s human, it wasn’t normal and a lot of people noticed, she should have been on the floor with a broken nose or a nosebleed at the least, but she was completely fine.” Rosalie finished.

“I have to side with Rose on this, I don’t think she’s human either.” Edythe said.

Alice was getting furious and wanted to defend her mate.

“Alice, stay calm. Bella not being human doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. We know she’s gifted and durable. We have reason to believe she has eyesight as good as ours. But we have enough reason to strongly believe she isn’t a vampire. She cannot be a werewolf or a Quileute shifter, we’d know. Could she be? No there’s so few of them…” Carlisle started saying then switched to thinking out loud.

“Could she be what Carlisle?” Alice demanded.

“A mutant. It would explain some things. Some humans have a activated gene that makes them different from others, their gifts vary wildly and in all my years I’ve never seen the same mutation manifesting in multiple mutants. There’s not many of them that we know of, humans tend to fear that which they don’t know, so mutants tend to live in hiding for their entire lives.” Carlisle said in full scientist mode.

“She has told me multiple times that she would be a bad friend for me to have, that she’s dangerous.” Alice said.

“Maybe it’s her way of saying she’s no ordinary human, honey.” Esme tried to comfort Alice.

The Cullens spent the rest of the evening contemplating and debating it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you all enjoy, Chapter 4 well underway. thank you for the Kudos, Comments and for reading.

**Chapter 3**

Bella did attend the bonfire on Saturday, the La Push gang seemed to be present as well, one of them had his girlfriend with him, she had some bad scars on one side of her face. Billy tried again to convince her to not live in the woods, something the La Push gang seemed to support. He then proceeded to tell old Quileute legends, how they had been spirit warriors, then they became men who turned into wolves and he topped it with the legends of the cold ones. After Billy was finished multiple smaller conversations got started. Billy threw a hissy fit when Bella mentioned the Cullens to Jake. All eyes were on Bella now.

“You should stay away from the Cullens Bella, they are dangerous.” Billy finally warned.

“They don’t seem dangerous to me and I got a talent for spotting danger.” Bella replied coldly.

“Bella how well do you know them?”

“I ain’t doing this, bub. Have a good evening, I’m going home.” Bella said as she got up.

“Think of the legends when you get home!” Billy shouted to Bella as she walked away.

Bella got to her truck, Jake having caught up with her before she could get in.

“Don’t pay any attention to him Bella, he’s a superstitious old man. They all are around here.”

“It’s ok Jake, it’s just I don’t need this in my life right now. I don’t have the time or patience, I’m sorry.” Bella said making Jake look sad.

“Does that mean we cant hang out together anymore?” Jake asked with puppy eyes.

“You’re good, just call me before you come down. Ok?” Bella answered.

They said their goodbyes and shook hands.

“Jake you should go home you’re burning up.” Bella said.

“I feel fine.” Jake said unconvincingly.

“Don’t lie to me Jake, go home and rest, I’ll see you soon.” Bella said and got in her truck.

Bella started driving home, going over the legends again during her drive. When she got home she started on her homework to keep herself busy, she had quickly turned dismissive of the legends. As strange as you could call her, people turning into dogs or actual vampires are just too crazy. Let alone that the Cullens would be dangerous, a little annoying maybe, especially Alice who had a tendency to get in your head and make your world revolve around her. By Sunday evening she had the solar panels mounted in the clearing and the basic plumbing finished inside the cabin. She demolished the existing bed, choosing to replace it along with most of the interior furniture.

After school on Monday she went to the cabin and loaded up her truck to make several trips to the dump. Alice had crept back into her mind, making her wonder if it wouldn’t be just better to pack up and leave town. Being so unusually well preserved despite her age made it impossible to strike up long term friendships, let alone relationships and Alice seemed a little too interested, from the conversations they’ve been having. But she had started living for those conversations in a way, those brief moments of being with Alice made a lot of pain go away. She wondered most of the week how cruel it would be to strike up an actual friendship with the girl and why that girl was able to tear down all the barriers she had in place. Thursday morning she arrived a little early at school, it was a very rainy day, more rainy that usual. She sat in her truck for a while, not wanting to get out just yet. when she got out and turned around to lock her truck, she heard a skidding noise, she turned around to see Tyler Crowley’s van skid towards her fast. As soon as she realized what was happening she felt her left arm being pulled hard. She looked over to see Alice desperately trying to pull her out of the way. There wasn’t any time left to do anything that wouldn’t expose her.

“Not her, not her.” Bella thought.

She grabbed Alice and threw her out of the way hard enough that she flew far enough to clear her truck, braced herself and let the van come close enough to push it to a stop. Her steel hands connected with the van, twisting and denting the metal, she felt her left arm going through the thin sheet metal, shredding her left sleeve and tearing her flesh with her healing repairing the torn flesh immediately. Her feet were being pushed backwards towards her truck as she kept bracing against the van to force it to a stop. The van ended up stopping making a slight contact with her trucks rear fender and a small opening in the front of her truck. She pulled her left arm free, tearing it again but it instantly healed again, she quickly slipped through the opening left in the front and walked around her truck and headed towards Alice, who was in shock.

“Alice. Alice look at me.” She said as she took a hold of the shocked Pixie.

“Bella? You’re alive?”

“I’m here. Are you ok? I think you’re in shock, you should probably go to the hospital, I pushed you out of the way pretty hard you probably hit your head.”

“Bella the van. You? How?”

“I jumped away in time.” Bella lied to the best of her ability.

Most of the student body came over to join them expecting a lot of carnage. Teachers were running out of the school towards the accident site. Some shouted to check on Tyler. Others were on the phone with 911, Alice’s family had a strange look of shock and worry on their faces. Bella kept talking to the shocked Alice. Soon several ambulances arrived. Several of the EMT’s approached Alice and Bella. Fortunately the heavy rain had washed off the blood on her left arm, which had been minimal.

“I don’t need any help! I think she’s in shock, take her to the hospital immediately.” Bella shouted when the paramedics wanted to help her.

“Miss Swan, you’re a minor involved in an accident on school property, you need to go with the ambulance to the hospital.” She heard a voice say.

She looked up and saw the biology teacher Mr banner.

“Don’t argue, it’s school policy due to our insurance, you have to go.” Mr Banner said.

The EMT’s kept trying to pull her onto a stretcher.

“Fine I’ll ride with Alice’s ambulance, but I’m walking because I’m fine.” Bella snarled at both the EMT’s and Mr Banner.

She quickly got up and walked to the ambulance.

“Please miss Swan, you might be experiencing an adrenaline rush, you really should get on a stretcher and wear a neck brace.” One of the EMT’s said while grabbing her arm

“Stay calm, don’t let your claws come out. You can handle this idiot.” Bella thought.

She grabbed the EMT’s hand and removed it from her arm with some force.

“Get her on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance now or I’ll do it myself.” She said to the EMT viciously.

Seeing there was no point to it, they put Alice on the stretcher and loaded her in the back. Bella couldn’t help herself and comforted Alice the entire time they were on the way to the hospital, it seemed to help, Alice was starting to come out of it. Soon they arrived at the hospital, she walked out of the ambulance while they unloaded Alice. A pale looking doctor came running up to them.

“Alice are you ok?” he asked as he grabbed her head with both his hands.

It seemed enough to snape Alice out of her state of shock.

“I’m fine, Bella-“

“I pushed her out of the way pretty hard, she may have a concussion.” Bella interrupted Alice.

“I should look you both over nevertheless.” He replied.

He led them to the ER pushing Alice’s stretcher himself. Alice was quickly transferred to a bed, the EMT’s took the stretcher away.

“You injured your arm, I’ll have you taken to radiology to have a few x rays taken.” The doctor said to Bella referring to her torn sleeve.

“I’m fine, I only came because they kept nagging, I got out of the way.” Bella quickly lied.

“Can I take a quick look at least?” he asked with a pleading tone.

“Fine take a peek but then you have to take care of Alice.” Bella hissed at the doctor.

“I’m Carlisle Cullen, Alice’s father.” He said as he looked over Bella’s perfectly intact arm, trying to make it budge or twist, probably something that would hurt somebody with micro fractures in their bones.

“Aren’t you going to look at Alice? I’m fine.” Bella said with conviction.

His hands though were cold, colder than Alice’s hands. He let go of her arm and pulled out a penlight, doing a few quick tests.

“I’ll look at her as soon as I’m done with you, I’d do it the other way around but since you insist on not being treated I have to assume you might be worse off than you let on. Now follow my finger with your eyes please.” Dr Cullen said.

“Fine.” Bella hissed following his finger with her eyes waiting for him to be done.

“Well it doesn’t seem like you have a break or a concussion, it’s against my better judgment but you’re free to go as soon as one of your parents get here. I’ll excuse you from school for today, But you have to promise that you’ll come back here if you feel anything wrong” He said with a sigh while writing some things down and handing Bella a note.

“My parents are dead. I’m legally an adult. Take care of Alice please. And I’m completely fine, trust me I’ve been through far worse.” Bella said before turning back to Alice.

“You’ll be ok, I’ll see you in school.” Bella said to Alice while stroking her cheek.

Bella walked out of the ER room to find most of the school waiting there. She hitched a ride with one of the teachers after handing her doctors note. Tyler Crowley had sustained some minor lacerations, so all in all everybody was relieved that it hadn’t been too bad. Once back at the school she went to her truck, Tyler’s van hadn’t been moved yet, she wanted to undo some of the more noticeable dents, but surprisingly they had already been taken care off. Bella got into her truck and went home for the day, just for the sake of keeping up appearances, since she was absolutely fine. She spent the school day working on the cabin, semi grateful of what happened as it gave her the chance to get some work done. She was constantly fighting the urge to go to the hospital to check on Alice, She had thrown her pretty hard, too hard.

“Wait, where the hell did Alice come from to begin with? She was nowhere near me when I got out of the truck, I would’ve seen her when I turned to lock my truck. So she’s fast? Too fast? She’s cold to the touch, it’s getting colder outside though. But her father Dr Cullen had ice cold hands, it can’t be a family trait to have bad circulation Alice is adopted. But the eyes, they all have the same golden eyes that get darker and then are butterscotch gold again. What did the Quileute legends say again about the cold ones?” Bella thought.

Bella whipped out her phone and started searching for Quileute legends and legends in general about fast cold creatures. There was nothing conclusive to be found, most was about supposed vampires on the one more serious looking website she had found containing a bunch of myths and legends. There was a native book store in Port Angeles that sold a book about Quileute legends.

“Billy did warn me specifically to stay away from the Cullens, it seems the only one there not believing in it was Jake. I still got time to make it to that store before closing time. And the dangerous creatures in the woods, extraordinarily dangerous creatures with the indication that no human stands a chance against them was another thing he warned about.” Bella thought.

She drove over to Port Angeles to get the book on Quileute legends, hoping to find answers.

Meanwhile at the Cullen mansion Carlisle had just come home from his job at the hospital, accompanied by his daughter Alice who was still somewhat in shock, he had signed her out to take her home. They walked from the garage into the living room together to find the entire family waiting for them, his beloved wife Esme immediately pulled the small pixie into her arms.

“Alice can you tell me exactly what happened?” Esme asked.

“Rose and Edythe are right, she’s not human. The van was going to crush her, I ran over as fast as I could wanting to pull her out of the way, I couldn’t move her. She told everybody that she pushed me out of the way, but she threw me, she’s strong, really strong. She didn’t jump out of the way, she stopped the van. She’s not human. I thought she was going to die, I still can’t grasp that she’s alive.” Alice blubbered out.

“We did our best to hide the evidence that she stopped the van in the time we had, we also collected blood that probably belongs to her, there wasn’t much but it looked like her left arm went through the side of the jam. Did you notice anything when you treated her Carlisle? Perhaps you could test her blood.” Edythe asked while handing Carlisle a Ziplock bag with a bloody tissue.

“I can’t say I treated her, she refused treatment, I had seen her shredded sleeve and she was adamant about no x rays being taken, there were no visible injuries. I used more strength than normal when inspecting her arm, pulling and twisting, it’s something that normally hurts patients with microfractures, but she was fine. In fact she was quite worried about Alice. Without her consent I feel it’s wrong to conduct any tests on her blood.” Carlisle said and threw the sample in the fireplace.

“Mom what am I going to do?” Alice asked sadly.

“Oh honey, no matter what she’s your mate and if you learned anything today it’s that she cares about you. It might be a step forward for you two.” Esme comforted Alice.

“I hope she’s ok.” Alice sobbed.

“How about we go hunting and take a quick peek. We’ll have to keep our distance though of course.” Esme offered to Alice.

Alice agreed with her mother’s plan and after changing into more appropriate clothes, they set off.

Bella had made it to the Native American book store before closing time. The guy working the counter had been somewhat sceptical when it came to selling her the book, the legends were sacred to his people after all. She had convinced him when she told him she had a big school project on local history and that she preferred to shine a little light on the history of the tribes in the peninsula. It was a lie of course but it had convinced him to part with the book. She drove back to the cabin picking up a pizza along the way. While eating the pizza she flipped through the book, hoping to find more details, written records often are more expansive. The legends of the cold ones were written down here more extensively, she wrote down the traits, great strength, cold skin, red eyes, extremely fast, pale skin, very good hearing, lives off blood.

“Well neither Alice or her family have red eyes, they do have the other traits it seems. I wonder if there’s anything else in here.” Bella thought.

She found an addition at the end of the book, the Quileute tribe once made a treaty with cold ones that claimed to be different, they said their yellow eyes were the proof, but the tribe didn’t trust them, the chief wanted them to stay off the tribal lands.

“Yellow eyes. Gold is yellow. This can’t possible be true.”

She wondered about it all night, Could Alice Cullen and by extension her family be cold ones or vampires. Never in her time had she encountered vampires so she had no reference point. Not even in the program had she heard the word. Though most of the time she was kept in her cell, only coming out for training, enhancement procedures or missions. Since the pizza was finished, she lit a after dinner cigar. She was so lost in thought she hadn’t noticed the 2 blurs in the distance, but she did hear the sound of them running away.

“2 separate sounds this time, one heavier than the other. What is their intention? Are they going to come for me? The Quileute legends say the wolves hard teeth manage to tear vampires apart. As hard as the vampires may be, my claws should be able to hurt them right?” Bella thought.

Not too far away from Bella’s cabin Alice and Esme were running towards their home at high speed.

“She’s fine honey, though she seems to have bad habits.” Esme said.

Alice wanted to hiss at her mother for saying her mate had bad habits but knew better, she waited until it passed before asking her mom a question.

“Mom, should I tell her?” Alice asked.

“I don’t know honey, maybe this isn’t the right time, from what Carlisle said Bella showed today that she does care about you, try to capitalize on that first, get a little closer to her.” Esme answered.

“I need to go to school tomorrow. I have to see her up close.”

“Alice, take it slow, don’t be overbearing. That might scare her off.”

“I’ll try to take it easy.” The pixie promised her mother.

Bella’s night had been restless, she had a dream and a nightmare, the dream had been a positive outcome of confronting Alice, the nightmare the opposite. She had shredded a set of sheets and her mattress with her claws, the latter had been quickly fixed with duct tape. It was somewhat disappointing; it had been a while since her claws had come out during her sleep. She ended up deciding to confront Alice. Fortunately, the lack of sleep didn’t really affect her all that much. In the morning after placing an online order for a new mattress for the truck camper, she left a little early, dropping by the local coffee stand in her truck for a tall very strong latte and a couple of muffins. She enjoyed her breakfast in the schools parking lot, having parked in her usual spot, the big truck wasn’t the easiest to manoeuvre so the far edge of the lot was always easier to park in. halfway through her second muffin the familiar Volvo arrived. She looked through her mirror to see how many got out of the car. Edythe, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and Alice.

“Yes she’s at school!!!” Bella thought very enthusiastically.

Bella focused on Alice and took a good look at her from her truck.

“She looks better than yesterday.” Bella thought.

She quickly munched down the remainder of her second muffin grabbed her bag and coffee cup and exited her truck. After locking it she walked over to the Cullens. There was a obvious look of relief on Alice’s face. Bella had to fight the urge to pull Alice into a hug.

“Glad to see you’re better than yesterday Alice.” Bella said, nodded to the rest of her family and walked into the school.

Most of the day she had been questioned about the accident. Tyler Crowley was back at school as well. He spent his school day profoundly apologizing to Bella, during lunch he even walked over to the Cullen table to profoundly apologize to Alice. The simple act of walking to the Cullens table had everybody looking at him. With Bella’s superior hearing she could easily overhear the conversation.

“Miss Cullen I’d like to apologize for the accident I caused yesterday, I should’ve been more careful. I hope you aren’t hurt too bad. My parents wanted me to give you their phone number to pass to your parents in case there’s problems down the line.” Tyler said sheepishly while handing her a card.

“Thank you, but there’s no need to apologize, I’m absolutely fine. No harm no foul.” Alice replied graciously.

Tyler muttered some more apologies anyway and got several reassurances from the Cullens before hurrying back to our table. To say he had been dazzled was putting it lightly. He wanted to apologize to Bella again, but she put her hand up.

“I’m fine Tyler, I only took advantage of the day off to do some chores at home. There’s no need to apologize, I’m absolutely fine. No harm no foul.” Bella said.

It got her stares from the entire Cullen table, she had paraphrased Alice enough that it was noticeable. She now knew that the Cullens had superior hearing too, but it seemed she might have given away her own superior hearing. She looked away from the Cullens and went back to eating lunch. After lunch she shared biology with Edythe. She sat down at their lab table where Edythe was already waiting for her.

“Thank you for pushing my sister out of the way.” Edythe said.

“It’s nothing I didn’t want her to get hurt, I probably shouldn’t have shoved her that hard. I’m just glad to see she’s alright. She didn’t look too good afterwards and it had me worried.” Bella responded

“She’s grown on you, hasn’t she?” Edythe asked and sat there with a big grin.

“I talk with her sometimes. But it still would be better for her if she stayed away from me. Like yesterday, if she hadn’t come over to my truck I wouldn’t have had to shove her.” Bella said attempting to deflect.

“I think you care about her more then you’re willing to admit.” Edythe said.

“Maybe in another life, in this one it’s best she stays far away from me.” Bella responded with a sad tone.

“I don’t know what happened to you, but you shouldn’t close yourself off like this. Ali will try to murder me for telling you this. She’s gay. I’ve seen the way you look at her, we all have. You don’t need to be afraid of her turning you down or how people will react.” Edythe whispered sympathetically while touching Bella’s left arm.

“I’m not even taking that into account, it’s best she stays away from me. Like I said, in another life, not in this one.” Bella replied while peeling Edythe’s cold hand off of her arm.

She didn’t pay any more attention to Edythe and looked to the front of the class. Bella was somewhat relieved when Mr Banner started the class. It was hard for Bella to focus on the class, her thoughts were all over the place. She was heavily contemplating if it wouldn’t be better to skip school for the rest of the day and skipping town came back to mind. Ultimately the strange urge to see Alice again had won out. When biology was over she quickly made her way to the history class. She quickly entered the class relieved to see Alice, she sat down next to her and laid a hand on her cold arm, touching her wrist with two fingers on Alice’s jugular veins. She confirmed her suspicion, Alice had no pulse.

“You’re sure that you’re ok right?” Bella asked.

“I’m good, Carlisle wouldn’t let me come to school otherwise. Are you ok?” Alice asked.

“I’m completely fine, everybody was overreacting about me.”

“Bella, I need to te-. Uhm thank you. For pushing me out of the way I mean, you saved my life.” Alice said as if something heavy weighed on her.

Bella leaned in closer and quietly whispered to Alice.

“I know what you want to tell me, I know your big secret. I know what you are Alice. Why you’re cold and have no pulse” Bella whispered silently enough that only someone with superior hearing can hear it.

Alice looked in shock again once recovered she whispered back.

“And you’re not afraid or freaking out?” Alice whispered when Mr Smith had already begun the class.

“No, I know why your eyes are gold and not red.” Bella whispered back when Mr Smith wasn’t looking.

“Bella I’m, I don’t know what to say.” Alice whispered.

“You should stay away from me, not because of what you are but because of me. I’m not the kind of person you need. In another life I’d gladly have you as a friend or more, in this one it’s too dangerous for you.” Bella whispered to a sad looking Alice.

“Bella please.” Alice begged.

“No Alice, it would put you in too great a danger. I can’t do that to you, you deserve better than me.” Bella whispered back.

“Bella, my family and me can handle ourselves and we have certain gifts that helps as well.” Alice whispered insistently.

“Alice, it’s best you let it go. I’m no good for you. I’m not a fool, I’ve seen the way you look at me. I know it’s difficult but you’ll get over it in time. People have gotten hurt because of me in the past, helping me, being around me too often places you in great danger.” Bella whispered back to the devastated Alice.

The remainder of the history class Alice was unable to say another word. As had often happened before Bella bolted for the door as soon as the class was over. It felt like her heart had been teared out. Regardless of what Alice was, Bella had become fond of her, fond enough to keep her at a distance, for Alice’s safety. Gym had provided a good chance for some distraction, the scalding hot shower helped even more. The heart ache returned soon after. When she was dressed she went to the parking, she noticed the Volvo was already gone. Bella got in her truck and headed back to the cabin, working for a few hours before heading to the diner for steak and cobbler.

After school on the other side of forks Esme had her hands full consoling the heartbroken Alice, she had come home early in a terrible state. Esme had hoped when the other kids got home that Jasper would use his gift to calm Alice down, but he had said it was inappropriate. Her kids had all rapidly gone their separate ways.

“Alice honey, can you at least tell me what happened?” Esme asked to Alice who was still sobbing after hours of comforting.

“She turned – me down. She knows – what – we are.” Alice got out in between sobs.

“The poor thing, she must be terrified.” Esme said hoping to comfort the pixie, only resulting in her sobbing even harder again.

When Alice had calmed down enough again, she spoke again between sobs.

“That’s not – it. She said – being with her – would put – me in danger. Said I – deserve better – than her. But – she – is perfect.” Alice let out in between sobs.

Esme hoped the situation could be turned around, vampires being outright rejected by their mates rarely ended well. If things didn’t turn around the once so lively Alice, always bringing happiness and joy in their never ending lives would either die or if she survived she would be a shell of herself. While comforting Alice she contemplated intervening, not necessarily believing it would be wrong if it saved her precious Alice’s life.

When Bella got back from the diner she sank into a pit of misery, she cut herself over and over again to make the pain go away. She finally fell asleep in a ball of misery. Saturday started with putting some finishing touches on the cabin, by now pretty much everything worked, all the lights worked, the outlets worked, hot water came out of the kitchen sink faucet, all the basics were covered. She was waiting for Jake who was feeling good again, to go furniture shopping. Soon Jake arrived.

“Hey Bella.”

“Jake what the hell happened to you? You grew, like a lot in a week.”

“Uh yeah, growth spurt you know.” Jake replied.

“Jake you’re at least a couple inches taller, not that you were short to begin with.” Bella retorted, having never heard or seen such a growth spurt.

When Bella finished her coffee, they went to get the furniture she needed, a new bed and mattress, sheets, pillows, a love seat, a tv and some random bits. On the way back from Port Angeles Jake felt the need to mention something he had noticed.

“You seem a little off today?” Jake asked.

“It’s been a rough week.” Bella replied.

“What happened?” Jake inquired further.

“Well, I kinda got into a car accident at school, I managed to push Alice away and jump out of the way myself just in time. After having to go to the hospital I spent the rest of the day at home, doing various jobs. Yesterday I made a hard decision regarding Alice, I have a lot of issues, it’s better we don’t get close, it hurts though.” Bella said as honest as she could

“That does sound like a rough week. Who’s this Alice?” Jake asked.

“Alice Cullen.” I said causing Jake to start shaking.

“You’re right, it’s better you don’t get close to a Cullen.” Jake spat out viciously when he calmed down.

The way Jake had said it made her angry, her claws nearly came out, 3 ridges were visible on her hands causing her to be unable to bend her wrists. She focused on retracting her claws into her arms.

“Don’t you start too bub, I’m not in the fucking mood for this.” She spat back.

The rest of the way they rode in silence. Once back at the cabin they worked in silence unloading the truck putting all the boxes inside the cabin.

“Sorry that was a shitty way for me to react. It’s just with all the stuff going around the rez about the Cullens it get’s to you sometimes.” Jake said lacking any real apologetic tone.

“It’s a fucking shitty way to react to somebody who let out their heart to you. I came here seeking peace and quiet, between all of you I haven’t gotten any. Just leave Jake.” Bella snarled at Jake.

“Come on Bella.”

“No! Leave me alone. Get out of here.” Bella said with conviction.

Jake saw there was no point to arguing and left, hoping he hadn’t completely destroyed what he thought was a barely rekindled friendship with maybe a chance of it being something more one day, cause in his mind, Bella was hot, really hot. He got in his old chevy truck and drove home.

Bella assembled everything herself with speed and ease, the work still providing a distraction. Before the evening she had everything set up. Afterwards she collapsed, she didn’t find the energy for projects that she could focus on anymore, she spent the entire Saturday evening and Sunday on the loveseat curled up in a ball of misery, the pain caused by pushing away Alice had become too much to bear. It felt like she was being pulled inside out. Something inside her that she didn’t knew she had, broke. In between crying all she could do was hurt herself or murmur Alice’s name and that she was sorry. She was in no condition let alone any mood to attend school on Monday so with difficulty she called in sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things will get better.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for a change. Enjoy reading and thank you for the comments and kudos.

**Chapter 4**

She called in sick on Monday it had taken everything she had that morning to make the call. She spent the day either harming herself, curled into a ball of misery or bartering with herself. The heart ache was unbearable. Bella through her long life had often wanted to die, she had gone through great lengths trying to achieve it. Obvious ways hadn’t worked, neither had extreme ways, something always went wrong or she came back from the dead anyway. On Wednesday she had tied one of the old shotguns she had found in the cabin to a tree and shot herself multiple times. It didn’t cause any permanent harm of course but made her temporarily feel a little better. She desperately wanted to go find Alice. She fully realized by now it wasn’t friendship she wanted with Alice, Alice meant everything to her. Alice meant enough to her that this pain was worth staying away from Alice, it kept her safe. The program hadn’t come after her in well over a decade, she might have killed them all by now or at least enough of them that they didn’t want to risk it. Her strength had always been that she didn’t have any ties, no body could be used against her. What if they’d use Alice against her? Or do some of the things they had done to her, to Alice. They had their ways of torturing somebody into submission. Machines strong enough to erase your memories, even all of them if they wanted to. Some of the other subjects, all who had been discarded after the program got out of them what they wanted, had been unable to offer a lot of resistance to the machines. They had to use the max settings every time on Bella and eventually that didn’t work so they had to improve the efficiency.

On the other side of Forks Esme had been comforting her precious Alice for 6 days straight by now. The kids had gone back to school to keep up appearances. At Carlisle’s insistence Esme had finally taken a break to go hunting, he had wanted to go with her but she had insisted he stayed with Alice. Subconsciously she had decided to go check up on Bella, she aught to be furious with the girl but when she had found out she had been absent from school 3 days in a row part of her had become worried. She went hunting staying close to home, and swung around to the other side of town. When she got to the spot that offered the best visibility, she saw a horrific image that remembered her of her own past when she had jumped off a cliff after the loss of her son. Bella was standing in the forest with a shotgun pointed at her, Bella pulled a string causing the gun to fire at her point blank, causing her to fall to the ground. Esme ran towards the girl as fast as she could.

 _“Maybe there’s still time to save her, I’ll change her and maybe then she’ll want to be with Alice.”_ Esme thought as she approached Bella.

When Esme got close to the girl’s body, Bella got up, to Esme’s shock. Bella looked like a mess, the shot was falling out of her body, like it was being rejected. Bella either didn’t see Esme or didn’t care, she slumped back to the old cabin and went inside. Esme peaked inside the cabin, Bella was curled up in a ball, crying. Murmuring Alice’s name. Aside from the suicide attempt Bella seemed so much like Alice, she seemed to be suffering like Alice was. Her maternal instincts wanted her to go in there and pull the girl into her arms to comfort her. But she was unsure if this was the right course of action. So eventually she went home, shared her thoughts with Edythe who promptly gathered the family for a discussion away from the house so Alice couldn’t overhear. She pulled Alice back into her arms.

Once far enough from the house Edythe started talking.

“Esme shared her thoughts with me, after she went hunting she went to check on Bella, since she has been absent from school as well. Bella shot herself with a shotgun.” All the present family members gasped in shock. “Esme ran to Bella, hoping she’d be in time to save her by attempting to change her, granted she had some secondary objectives with that. When she got close to Bella, Bella stood up again, the shot from the shotgun falling out of her body. She went back inside the cabin, Esme doesn’t know if Bella even saw her, from the memory she shared I don’t think she did. When Esme peeked through one of the cabins windows, she found Bella curled up into a ball, crying and murmuring Alice’s name. Since I have been able to convince Bella before to talk to Alice Esme wants me to go see her after school tomorrow with the excuse of bringing her homework and wanted me to talk to you guys about it first.”

“She could die from blood loss, I should go check on her, it might be too late already.” Carlisle said

“No there was very little blood loss, It seems Bella has a gift for accelerated healing, extremely fast healing. I think it’s why her arm appeared completely fine after the accident. Physically she’s completely fine.” Edythe replied after having grabbed Carlisle to prevent him from running off.

“Do you think she’s like this because she feels the mate bond? From what you described she’s in the same condition as Alice is in.” Emmett asked.

“Esme thinks so and I do as well, It seems Bella feels the mate bond.” Edythe answered Emmett’s question.

“I thought it was another of Alice’s vision led pipe dreams, I’m sorry for how I have been behaving. I’ll support anything that doesn’t cause my sister to die.” Rose said sheepishly.

“I support what you think is best darlin. Besides Bella is the only human I’ve come across that I don’t want to hurt.” Jasper said confidently.

“You’re not going to hurt anybody Jazz, you know I wont let you and will help you get away.” Edythe said to him with all her love.

“Since she knows about us anyway, I don’t see what harm it could do.” Carlisle sighed.

“I’ll inform Esme, hopefully I’m able to figure out why Bella is so hesitant, what the danger she speaks of is or I’m able to convince her that we can take care of ourselves.” Edythe said after gaining the family’s blessing.

They went back to the house, Edythe wrote a note with the decision and handed it to Esme who was back to holding Alice, Esme gave Edythe a relieved smile and went back to comforting Alice with a newfound confidence. Privately Edythe had Jasper promise to use his gift on Alice if her talk with Bella would work out.

Thursday was more of the same for Bella, she felt absolutely miserable, wanted to go see Alice and beg her for forgiveness no matter how long it would take. A couple of times she had almost been out of the door wanting to go wait for Alice at the school, but her better judgment won out every time, she just couldn’t put Alice in danger. She started contemplating leaving town again when there was suddenly a knock on her door.

“leave me alone.” Bella managed to get out.

“I can’t do that, I need you to hear me out, please.” A female voice said.

“who is it?” Bella asked.

“It’s Edythe, I got your homework with me, I also need you to hear me out, please Bella it’s important.” Edythe pleaded.

“Leave it by the door and go away.” Bella said.

“I can’t, it’s about you and Alice.” Edythe pleaded again.

“There is no Alice and me.” Bella said with pain and sadness in her voice.

“Bella I’m coming in, I wont hurt you.” Edythe said.

Edythe opened the door, to find a ball of misery called Bella on the floor. She put down Bella’s homework and took a seat.

“Go away, leave me alone.” Bella pleaded.

“I can’t do that, the way you are right now is the same way Alice is. Since you know what we are I can speak more freely. Alice and you are soulmates, we vampires tend to recognize our soulmates immediately upon looking them in the eyes for the first time. It’s due to vampire mating that you feel this miserable, you and Alice are made for each other. Whatever your reasons are for not wanting to be with her, fate disagrees. I don’t mean to say you don’t have a choice, you do, but the harsh choice you made is going to kill you.”

“Good, I look forward to it. It would be a relief for everything to finally be over, I’ll be able to stop running.” Bella sighed.

“It won’t be just you, Bella. It will kill Alice as well. If things don’t work out between you two it won’t be like this for either of you, you’ll both be fine and will be able to move on. My family, we know that you’re not like other humans, Esme our mother for all intent and purposes saw you shoot yourself yesterday, she hoped to save you by turning you into one of us, but you got up before she got to you. Then she found out you’re in the same miserable state Alice is in. You always say it would be too dangerous for Alice to be near you. We are durable Bella, more than you’d think. Whatever danger you and Alice would be in we’ll all gladly help you. I won’t lie to you, we live a transient life, but we do tend to stay in a place for years, as long as possible really. Please stop doing this to her and yourself.” Edythe pleaded.

“I don’t want to hurt Alice, can’t you help her?” Bella asked.

“No at this point only you can, the best we can do is make her go to school tomorrow. That will take a lot of convincing to begin with. If you care about Alice’s well being you’ll be there too.”

“I can’t cause her to get hurt, it’s not safe to be around me. It’s only a matter of time before they come for me again” Bella murmured.

“You’re already hurting her, you’re killing her. You’re going to be at school tomorrow or I’m coming back with my husband and we’ll drag you there. I don’t care who comes after you, we’ll kill them all if we have to. Get yourself cleaned up, you’re a mess, my sister needs you and I won’t take no for an answer.” Edythe snarled at Bella before leaving.

Edythe’s word lingered in Bella’s mind, she wondered if Alice was really suffering, Edythe had sounded very upset though. It had never been her meaning to hurt Alice the way Bella was hurting, It was another Thing Alice didn’t deserve. She debated with herself if Edythe was over reacting.

On the other side of Forks Edythe arrived back home and after giving Esme a note to update her, she went up to her and Jaspers room, getting Jasper to uplift Alice’s spirits temporarily.

“Jazz you got to do it, there’s a good chance Bella will be at school tomorrow, she’s hurting as bad as Alice is and seemed to be bartering for minutes anyway.” Edythe stated.

“It’s wrong to mess with somebodies’ emotions in that way, Edie. It’s not simply calming somebody down or anything, you want to manipulate her. If Bella isn’t there it will destroy Alice.” Jasper responded.

“Jazz, she’s already destroyed. You know she’s fading away, she’s not Alice anymore, it may be our last chance to bring her back. And we owe her, she found you all those years ago and brought us together. I can’t stand by and do nothing. Let’s get to work, I’ll go catch a couple of deer and bring them to the house so that Alice doesn’t have to go far to feed.” Edythe said in a factual manner closing the discussion between her and her mate.

They went downstairs and went their separate ways, Edythe off into the woods to catch deer. Jasper went to the living room to help Esme get Alice back on her feet. He sent out waves of hope and serenity to break through the extreme amount of sadness and melancholy coming from Alice.

“Jasper stop.” Alice sobbed out.

“Alice honey, Edythe went to talk to Bella. I need to tell you something.” Esme said.

“What did Edythe do?!” Alice hissed.

“Calm down honey, she merely talked to Bella. But I need to tell you something, when I went hunting at the family’s insistence yesterday, I went to check up on Bella, at first, I was furious at her for what she was doing to you, when I got to the spot where you have a good view, I saw what a mess she was. Bella has been using somewhat extreme methods to make the emotional pain go away.” Esme said until she got interrupted.

“What did she do?” Alice asked hysterically.

“Well first of all, Bell is completely fine, physically. But she stood in front of a shotgun and shot herself. Bella seems to have some kind of extremely fast healing, before I got to her to try and save her by changing her, the shot came out of her body and the wounds closed up. Alice the next part is important. After Bella got up and went back into that cabin, I took a peek through one of the windows. She’s in no better shape than you are, Bella feels the mating bond Alice. She was curled up and murmured your name and how sorry she was.” Esme said.

“She doesn’t want me” Alice cried out.

“She wants you, Edythe found out that Bella is really afraid you’ll be in danger for being with her. We’ll do whatever it takes to change her mind. We still don’t really know what happened to her, but we won’t give up on either of you and we’ll convince her that we can all keep each other safe. Alice all you have to do is have a little faith that it will work out. Let us help, we all want you to be happy.” Esme said.

It took them a while longer but eventually they managed to get Alice outside where Edythe was holding two deer. Jasper took one of them, snapped it’s neck and handed it to Alice who started feeding. Throughout the long night Jasper never wandered far from Alice, constantly sending her waves of hope and serenity to combat Alice’s still present sadness and melancholy.

Through much of the night Bella had been debating with herself, she had eventually fallen asleep long after darkness had fallen when her exhaustion had won out. She had barely been sleeping the past days.

In the morning Alice had grown increasingly against going to school.

“Alice what’s wrong?” Esme asked.

“I don’t see Bella at school.” Alice answered sadly.

“you’re seeing wrong…” Edythe murmured before running off into the woods.

Edythe quickly arrived at Bella’s cabin, checking her phone for the time, she decided it was time for Bella to wake up, who knew how long it would take for the human to be somewhat presentable. She opened the cabin’s door, walked over to Bella and woke her up, with great difficulty.

“Let me sleep.” Bella slurred.

“Time to get up Bella!” Edythe yelled waking up Bella a little more.

After several more minutes of back and forth Edythe had managed to get Bella to her feet.

“Is there a shower in that RV?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, go take a shower, I’ll get you some coffee. Bella, don’t even think about going back to sleep or not taking a shower.” Edythe ordered.

Bella made her way out of the cabin into her camper, she was not fully awake yet and was running on auto pilot. The severe lack of sleep had taken it’s toll. She got into the shower and turned the water on. By the time she got out Edythe was already waiting outside the camper.

“Get dressed.” Edythe said patiently.

Bella threw on the first clothes she found. Underwear, a pair of jeans, a t shirt and a plaid shirt.

“I don’t want to do this.” Bella whined.

“That’s irrelevant. Here’s a bottle of water, coffee and 2 cream cheese bagels.” Edythe said as she came in and put everything down on the table.

At Edythe’s insistence Bella started drinking the water and eating the bagels even though she didn’t feel like it.

“It will stop hurting when you see Alice. I’m going with you to school. The rest is going to get Alice there, we’ll be leaving soon so that you two have some time before school starts.”

“I can’t, she-“ Bella started.

“ENOUGH! I’m tired of your excuses. Whatever happened to you, whoever is after you we’ll take care of it when the time comes. I owe my sister everything, if there’s one thing you’re right about it’s that she deserves better than you. But you’re going to be the person that she deserves. No more of your excuses.” Edythe yelled out.

Bella had given up her internal struggle, sure she could most likely easily dispatch the angry bronze haired girl, But that would most likely result in Alice being hurt even more. And Bella really wanted to see Alice, she was desperate to see her at this point. Having heard what Alice was going through and the prospect of seeing her had destroyed whatever conviction she had left to keep Alice safe by staying away. She finished her bagels and the bottle of water and proceeded to starting on her coffee.

“You can finish that on the road we need to go.” Edythe insisted.

Somewhat reluctantly Bella got into the passenger seat after a short discussion with Edythe who insisted on driving. Once on the road Edythe warned Bella, to not even think about jumping out. It didn’t take them long to arrive at the nearly completely empty school parking lot, since it was still nearly an hour before school would start there weren’t any students present yet, the sole car present was the familiar Volvo. Edythe parked the big truck skillfully in it’s usual spot. Bella was terrified to get out.

In the Volvo it was only Jasper’s touch which amplified his gift that kept Alice from running off. Now that the truck was parked Rosalie and Emmett got out, he helped Alice out of the back of the Volvo without letting go of her and walked with her to Bella’s truck. He still felt uncomfortable manipulating his sisters emotions this way.

“they’re almost here, time to get out.” Edythe commanded.

Bella hesitantly got out of the truck. Once Alice came into her view she could hold back anymore and ran towards her, falling to her knees in front of Alice.

“Alice can you please forgive me, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just wanted to keep you safe.” Bella pleaded after taking one of Alice’s hands.

“Bella, I –“ Alice managed to say before Bella interrupted her.

“Alice I don’t expect you to forgive me immediately, I know I screwed up badly and really hurt you. I just need you to understand that with me there comes a truckload of danger, they might use you against me, hurt you to get to me, manipulate you.” Bella said with a warning tone.

“Bella I forgive you, but you can’t do it again.” Alice said with a serious tone.

“No you shouldn’t, I mean I won’t. But you should take your time to forgive me. Or at least make me earn it.” Bella blurted out.

“Ok, you can earn it by having lunch with me today.” Alice said graciously.

“You’re too graceful.” Bella said complimentary while getting up again.

They found that they were alone, like really alone, Alice’s family had gotten into the Volvo and driven off. Despite the two bagels Bella’s stomach rumbled.

“Have you eaten anything?” Alice asked.

“I had two bagels Edythe brought, I haven’t really been taking care of myself to be honest.”

“I can relate to that. There’s still plenty of time before school starts, come let’s go get you breakfast.”

They quickly got into Bella’s truck and drove to a local diner near the school. Bella ordered coffee and pancakes with bacon, eggs and a second plate, Alice told the waitress that she had already eaten so she just ordered coffee.

“So you guys can drink coffee?” Bella asked.

“We can drink everything, the only thing that has a effect on us is alcohol though. But I like coffee an tea because it’s warm, it warms us up on the inside.” Alice replied.

“Lucky you.” Bella murmured

“What do you mean?” Alice asked

“Alcohol having a effect on you I mean, I doesn’t really affect me. I have to drink large doses of strong liquor to feel a light buzz and it doesn’t last too long. When I have some it’s mainly for the taste.” Bella stated factually.

The waitress came back with the coffee, food and the second plate which she set down in front of Alice.

“Sorry that one is genuinely for me.” Bella said to the waitress.

Alice quickly handed the second plate to Bella who proceeded to pour syrup on it and placed a pancake on the syrup loaded plate. She started munching down on the breakfast.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen anybody eat pancakes like that.” Alice said.

“it gives every pancake a nice even coat, it’s better than pouring from the top.” Bella replied.

After breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee, Bella paid the bill and they headed back to school. A native American just got out of his car giving staring at them as they got into Bella’s truck. After a short drive they got back to school, the parking lot had started filling in. Bella parked her truck in it’s usual spot.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you like that, if I had known-“ Bella said before she got interrupted.

“Stop beating yourself up over it. I’ll see you at lunch. Promise?”

“Promise.”

The school day went by quickly, nobody seemed to have noticed Bella and Alice arriving together so there wasn’t any gossip going around, there was little else except Alice Cullen on Bella’s mind. Soon it was lunch time, Bella hurried to the cafeteria. Catching Alice already waiting for her at a small table that was rarely used. She quickly filled up a tray, paid for it and went to sit with Alice.

“I hope you’re ready for the gossip.” Alice said teasingly.

“The only thing I mind about gossip is having to hear it. Hear all of it. It’s hard enough already to focus.” Bella mumbled.

“So you have superior hearing and superior sight?” Alice inquired.

“Yeah, how do you know about the sight?” Bella asked.

“You caught me when I watched you from a distance.” Alice admitted.

They chatted for a bit about more normal things while Bella ate, Alice of course revealing her great love for fashion and design. Bella revealing she was a lot more lacking in the hobby department, generally preferring to stick to herself and watch tv without going into too much details.

“So you can drink coffee but not eat food?” Bella asked.

“We can but we don’t get any nutrition out of it, we don’t do it often but when we do, well let’s say we prefer something more edible than what’s being served here.” Alice answered

“What’s wrong with the food here? Granted it’s a little bland.”

“Bella, it’s plain awful.” Alice said seriously.

“I guess I’m a little simple when it comes to food. I never get sick anyway.” Bella stated.

It felt good to be with Alice again, it felt even better to be talking to her so much in a day. But Bella couldn’t shake the feeling that she was putting Alice in danger. Soon lunch was over and they made their separate ways to their classes. When Bella got to biology, Edythe was already sitting at their lab table.

“Wipe that smirk off your face Cullen, just because I’m happy to see your sister again doesn’t mean you can be smug about it, or that I’ll forget how bossy you’ve been.” Bella whispered while sitting down.

“I’m just glad that you got over your fear of putting Alice in danger.” Edythe whispered back.

“Then you should definitely wipe that smirk of your face, I’m not going to stop trying to convince her that she’s safer not being around me.” Bella whispered.

“As long as it’s a mutual decision.” Edythe hissed.

Bella looked forward to seeing Alice again during history. So once biology was over she made a beeline for the door and got to the history class as quickly as possible, Alice was already sitting down with a cheshire grin on her face.

“You’re that happy to see me?” Bella asked.

“Yes, but there’s something else. You’ll have to wait and see.” Alice said teasingly.

There wasn’t much time for them to talk, Mr. Smith quickly started the class, they had started the WWI time period. At the end of the class Mr. Smith had a announcement to made.

“You’re the first class to find out, there wont be a history test this winter –“ Mr. Smith said until he got interrupted by most of the classes cheers, causing him to signal the class to calm down. “Instead of a test, you’re to make a presentation about a randomly selected historical era.” He said as he started handing out pieces of paper, only one per desk. “You have to pair up with the person sitting at the same desk as you, no trading partners, no trading subjects, no exceptions.” He said as he finished handing out the pieces of paper.

Alice accepted our piece of paper with our subject. Showing that it said WWII, the Cheshire grin had returned only briefly disappearing to ask when we’d start.

“As soon as possible I guess?”

“Ok my place tomorrow or would you prefer your place? My mother might be a little over bearing though.” Alice asked.

“Mine is a mess to be honest, it’s more of a construction zone.” Bella admitted

“I’ll make sure my family will keep their distance tomorrow, Esme might be more difficult. Can you give me your number so I can send directions, unless you want to come after school today?” Alice asked while holding out her unlocked phone.

“I haven’t really slept since Saturday, I didn’t get much sleep last night, a few hours before your sister woke me up this morning. It’s probably better if I turn in early tonight.” Bella whispered back while entering her number.

“I’ll drive you home after school.” Alice offered.

“You don’t have to, I’ll be fine. Trust me. Besides I gotta keep my Friday steak dinner tradition up.” Bella insisted as they left the classroom.

Though she was tired it never was a problem for her to keep focus and keep pushing herself. She made it through gym with ease, taking a long scalding hot shower afterwards. Somehow Rosalie who always gave her mean looks had given her a small smile during gym. By the time she finally had gotten dressed and made her way to her truck in the empty parking lot, where Alice was waiting for her.

“I can drive Alice.”

“I know, I just wanted to ask you to do something for me.”

“Ok.”

“Bella, please don’t hurt yourself anymore.”

“I cant make any promises.” Bella said with her head turned down.

“Promise you’ll try then.”

“I’ll do my best.” Bella answered and gave Alice a small smile before getting into her truck.

She went to the cabin and cleaned up the mess and got started on the backlog of her homework. She left just before dinner time for her traditional steak and cobbler dinner. As usual she sat at the bar, when she was eating her cobbler dessert, Jake sat down next to her. He looked bigger, more muscular, he must have joined the La Push steroids gang.

“Bella, you were seen with Alice Cullen today, you said you had told her to stay away from you.” Jake said coldly.

“I changed my mind, people do that, Alice is pretty great.” Bella replied.

“You need to stay away from her, she and her family are dangerous. You don’t know what they are let alone what they are capable of.” Jake said with a angry tone.

“Jake, those steroids you’re on are really messing with you, aside from the obvious anger issues, you seem to think that you can tell me what to do. I know what Alice is, it doesn’t make a difference to me. I can handle myself and I chose who I hang out with.”

“Fine, if you want to be a leech lover I’ll just have to do whatever it takes to protects you. We’ll be watching you.” Jake snarled while getting up

“Bye Jake.” Bella said sarcastically as Jake left the diner.

She was glad he had left, he was starting to get on her nerves. She understood they wanted to look out for Bella Swan, but this was just some sick kind of controlling. She left money on the counter with a nice tip included when she finished her cobbler. She made her way home and got into her new bed for the first time, turning on the TV on the hallmark channel for feel good background noise. She checked her phone which had been left at the cabin to charge. Alice had sent her a text with her address and directions.

**Bella *I just got back from the diner, I got harassed by a friend that doesn’t want me to see you.***

She added the number to her few contacts.

**Alice *What happened? Are you OK?***

**Bella *I’m fine, he’s Quileute and knows what you guys are, it’s more warning than anything else. It’s due to them and their legends that I figured out what you guys are.***

**Alice *I’m glad you’re ok. They aren’t supposed to tell you or anyone out of their tribe what we are. I look forward to you coming over tomorrow, I talked to my family about it.***

**Bella *I look forward to coming, I’m going to get some sleep.***

**Alice *Sweet dreams.***

**Bella *Thanks, you too.***

Bella fell asleep shortly after, sleeping till 9 AM the next morning. She started her day off slow, making coffee and then going to the store to do groceries. She had some fruit she bought for breakfast with yogurt, did some minor chores, some homework and watched TV. She texted Alice she’d be there around 2 in the afternoon. Bella had missed Alice too much, it was always easier when she knew that she’d see Alice soon, but after what happened things hadn’t returned to normal yet.. She made some sandwiches for lunch around 1 PM, took a quick shower and changed her clothes. She grabbed her backpack, threw in her laptop and drove to Alice’s house. It was somewhat difficult to find the driveway along the 101 highway, it was very obscured. If not for Alice’s directions, Bella would’ve thought she was driving in the wrong direction, the driveway was a couple of miles long, eventually the driveway ended at a clearing with a huge mansion. It looked old, with nice balconies but it was extremely well taken care of. She parked her truck out front and got out somewhat hesitantly. As soon as she knocked on the front door it was opened by Alice.

“You want to finish your cigar first? I’m not sure Esme will like you smoking it inside.” Alice said.

“Oh sorry, I forgot about it.” Bella said while going back to her truck to put the cigar out.

When Bella got back to the front door Alice hugged Bella.

“Sorry I couldn’t help myself, I’m still not completely recovered. I missed you.” Alice admitted.

“It’s ok, I didn’t mind it at all, in fact despite being a little weird it was actually nice.” Bella said as Alice led her inside.

Dr Cullen and the sole member of the family Bella hadn’t met were waiting for them inside. The house was very modern on the inside, it seemed the entire back side of the house was made of glass and the downstairs was very open.

“These are my parents for all intents and purposes, Carlisle and Esme.” Alice said

“It’s nice to meet you under better circumstances.” Dr Cullen said and gave a nod.

“I’m glad you changed your mind about Alice and that you’re ok, you gave me quite the scare the other day.” Esme said as she stepped forward.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that. You have a very nice house.” Bella answered with her head turned down.

“It just hit home a little for me personally. Thank you, I’ve put a lot of time into it.” Esme said as she tried to lift Bella’s head up.

Bella looked up and gave her a small smile.

“I have to say I’m very interested in your healing, it’s really unique. I was hoping I could run some tests at some point.” Dr Cullen said curiously.

“No! No tests Dr Cullen.” Bella replied with a harsh tone.

“Of course. I apologize, my professional curiosity has gotten the best of me. Please call me Carlisle.” He said with a genuine apologetic tone.

“Ok let’s go up to my room so we can get started.” Alice said to rescue Bella.

Alice’s parents wished them good luck with their project. They went upstairs in the big mansion going into a large bed room, expertly decorated with a large bed, A large desk, a vanity and even a reading corner next to the balcony. Bella stated that the room fit Alice well. Alice led her to the walk in closet.

“My god, it’s huge, Alice you – Wow.” Bella uttered.

“I do plan to do something about your aversion to fashion at some point.” Alice stated when giving Bella a once over.

“I don’t have an aversion to fashion, just a chronic lack of closet space and a high need for mainly clothes suited for working.” Bella defended herself.

“Regardless I’d like to take you shopping, you need my help.” Alice stated

“Go shopping? You plan to sit beside me behind a laptop when I order clothes?” Bella asked slightly confused.

“No no no, we’re going shopping in person, the old fashioned and only good way. We’ll make a day out of it.” Alice insisted.

“If it makes you happy.” Bella mumbled.

“Half a day then.” Alice offered.

“That sounds better, besides I don’t have a lot of closet space to begin with.”

They got started on discussing their subject and what they could do, Alice was surprisingly knowledgeable on the subject. They would tell the stories of 2 women, one working in a airplane factory and the other working as a spy. After an hour Alice’s face went blank.

“Alice? Are you ok?” Bella asked

“Bella, stay here. Please, just stay here.” Alice said as she got up and left the room.

With Bella’s hearing she could hear all the movement in the house, everybody was heading outside through the front door. Bella got up from the desk chair and went to look out of the window. The Cullens had formed a line outside, there were 5 huge wolves coming outside the tree line, snarling at the Cullens. Carlisle stepped forward slightly. Bella heard Edythe saying that the wolves were here to enforce the treaty. The russet colored wolf at the center walked toward Alice, viciously growling at her.

 _“Large wolves, treaty. Oh no, it’s the Quileute’s, the legends work both ways. Enforce the treaty? Get away from Alice you monster!”_ Bella thought and opened the door leading to the balcony.

Her appearing on the balcony seemed to distract the russet colored wolf. Bella jumped off the balcony towards the russet colored wolf. Her adamantium backed fist connecting with the wolfs jaw as she landed in front of the wolf. The wolf whimpered, Bella swiftly kicked the wolf against a tree, the two nearest wolves came running to her, she shoved Alice back and ran forward slightly, jumping up in time to cause both wolves to run into each other. Bella was furious and punched both of them unconscious. She ran towards the wolf she had kicked against a tree. She balled her fists and let out her claws. She kicked the wolf onto it’s back and pressed the tips of her claws against it’s throat.

“I know what you are, change to your human form or I’ll cut your fucking head off!” Bella ordered the russet colored wolf.

She saw the fear in the wolf’s eyes followed by a nod. Soon the wolf started shrinking and a naked Jake was under her. She retracted her left claws, picked jake up, pressed him against a tree, let out her left claws again and put both sets against Jake’s throat.

“What are you doing here Jake?!” Bella snarled.

“Making sure you’d be safe. Those leeches would kill you.” Jake said while shivering.

“You threatened somebody I cared about, I told you to leave me alone and I also told you that I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. Whatever treaty you have with them doesn’t apply to me. You come near Alice again and I will cut your fucking head off. Do you understand Jake?” Bella spit at Jake barely containing her fury

“I understand.” Jake said nervously, waving off the 4 wolves that were approaching them.

“Good, this is so that you’ll remember.” Bella said and sliced Jake's right cheek with one of her claws. Causing him to cry out in pain. “Leave now or you’ll never fucking leave. I’ll bury the five of you where you fucking stand!” Bella yelled loud enough for all to hear.

Bella stepped away from the buck naked Jake walked back to the Cullens, circumventing the nearby wolves. She retracted her claws as she approached Alice. All the Cullens were looking at her.

“Alice are you ok?” Bella asked as she hesitantly stood in front of Alice.

“Bella – you – how.” Alice said being unable to form a coherent sentence.

“I’m here Alice.” Bella said as she took Alice’s right hand. “I’m sorry I shoved you again but that dog was going to attack you.

“Could we head inside? I think it’s time I tell you my story. I just hope you’ll be able to understand.” Bella said to the Cullens.

They all headed inside and sat down in the living room, Bella on a love seat with Alice next to her.

“That was some impressive fighting.” Jasper said

“Dude you got knives inside of you?” Emmett asked curiously earning him a stern look from Rosalie.

Carlisle had wanted to say something but he had been shushed by Esme before he had the chance.

“I call them claws, but yes. It would be better if I start though, it will hopefully answer most of your questions. I hope you can understand that I’m different now and won’t let it affect your opinion of me too much.”

All the Cullens nodded.

“I am not Isabella Swan…”


End file.
